The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), which has expanded its operation in northern Syria by sending tanks to al-Rai, needs a win. Just as important, the Turkish government needs a story about how the balances have shifted since the TSK’s intervention and how the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the Kurds are about to disintegrate.

Liwa al-Tahrir (Freedom Brigade) recently split from the SDF and sought refuge with Turkey, where the pro-government media treated the news with their trademark sensationalism: “There is now a growing crisis between Arab elements and the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] in the SDF. One hundred Liwa al-Tahrir fighters have fled from the PKK’s pressure to fight Turkey. They surrendered to the TSK at the border.”

But that is not how the episode was reported by the Arab media. Abu Mohamed Kafr Zita (Abdulkarim al-Obedi), the commander of Liwa al-Tahrir, accused the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) of excluding other groups from SDF decision-making, saying, “The SDF has to be for all Syrians, but we see that the YPG doesn’t agree. We fought together with the YPG for three years. Now they want to terminate us.”

Kafr Zita said the YPG pressure is not confined to his group: “They stopped delivery of food and water to all groups [including] Liwa al-Sana, Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa and Liwa al-Tahrir.”